Feasibility of underwater free space quantum key distribution

Abstract

We investigate the optical absorption and scattering properties of underwater media pertinent to our underwater free space quantum key distribution (QKD) channel model. With the vector radiative transfer theory and Monte Carlo method, we obtain the attenuation of photons, the fidelity of the scattered photons, the quantum bit error rate and the sifted key generation rate of underwater quantum communication. It can be observed from our simulations that the most secure single photon underwater free space QKD is feasible in the clearest ocean water.

12 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Field and long-term demonstration of a wide area quantum key distribution network
• Efficient decoy-state quantum key distribution with quantified security
• 2-GHz clock quantum key distribution over 260 km of standard telecom fiber

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Characterization of an underwater channel for quantum communications in the Ottawa River
• Experimental investigation of quantum key distribution over water channel
• Performance of Underwater Quantum Key Distribution with Polarization Encoding
• Underwater Quantum Key Distribution in Outdoor Conditions with Twisted Photons
• Multi-Hop Quantum Key Distribution with Passive Relays over Underwater Turbulence Channels
• On the Optimization of Underwater Quantum Key Distribution Systems with Time-Gated SPADs